Security box

ABSTRACT

A security box of the type having four side walls extending forwardly from a back panel to form a storage chamber closed by a side-pivoted door, wherein a pair of brackets are removably engaged by a pair of upper retainer legs on mounting clips attached in the storage chamber on opposite side walls. When the security box is in an inverted position to reverse the opening direction of the door, the brackets are also removably emgaged by a pair of lower retainer legs on the mounting clips. One portable bin is provided for resting in the storage chamber on the bottom side wall, and an identical second portable bin is provided for resting on the brackets engaged by the mounting clips.

United States Patent 1191 Foster et a1.

1451 Dec. 24, 1974 SECURITY BOX [76] Inventors: Burnham Foster, 820 S.2nd St., Alhambra, Calif. 91801; Morton Schneider, 747 Chimineas Ave.,Tarzana, Calif. 91356 [22] Filed: Mar. 28, 1973 21 Appl. No.: 345,746

52 U.S.Cl. ..l09/23,109/58 51 1111.01. ..E05g 3/00 [58] Field ofSearchIDS/107,109, 12,62;

[5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 479,464 7/1892 R001 109/57x 940,023 11/1909 Hutchinson.. 108/107 x 1,080,203 12/1913 Dungan108/107 1,871,972 8/1932 Fenstermaker.....'. 108/107 X 2,483,606 10/1949Albach et a1. 312/351 x 3,012,678 12/1961 Fiege 108/109 3,168,365 2/1965Evans...l..'. 108/109 x FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 131,108 1/1949Australian, 108/107 5,538 3/1894 Great Britain 108/107 PrimaryExaminer-Dennis L. Taylor Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Harris, Kern, Wallen& Tinsley [5 7 ABSTRACT A security box of the type having four sidewalls extending forwardly from a back panel to form a storage chamberclosed by a side-pivoted door, wherein a pair of brackets are removablyengaged by a pair of upper retainer legs on mounting clips attached inthe storage chamber on opposite side walls. When the security box is inan inverted position to reverse the opening direction of the door, thebrackets are also removably emgaged by a pair of lower retainer legs onthe mounting'clips. One portable bin is provided for resting in thestorage chamber on the bottom side wall,

7 and an identical second portable bin is provided for resting on thebrackets engaged by the mounting clips.

1 Claim, 5 Drawing Figures SECURITY BOX This invention relates generallyto security boxes, and more specifically to a security box for permanentinstallation in a wall partition.

Conventional security boxes for storing valuables and the like in homeshave usually been simple portable units or sophisticated wall safes.However, portable units are too easily forced open or taken from thepremises, while typical wall safes are unduly expensive, difficult toinstall, and protmdefrom both the front and back of the partition wall.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provideaninexpensive security box which can be permanently mounted in a wallpartition without interfering with the back of the partition, andaligned with the front of the partition.

Another object of the invention is to provide a security box which canbe used with or without storage bins therein. A related object is toprovide a pair of removable brackets which can be mounted in thesecurity box to support a portable bin.

A further object is to provide a security box which can be installedwith either a right-hand swing or a lefthand swing, without having toremount the door.

Still another object is to provide a security box which is insulated andsealed to prevent damage to its contents. Further objects, features, andadvantages of the invention will be evident to those skilled in the artfrom the following description of a preferred embodiment of theinvention.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a presently preferred embodiment of a securitybox in its normal position with a right-swing door; 7

FIG. 2 is a front view of the security box in inverted position with aleft-swing doorr FIG. 3 is a partial cut-away sectional view taken alongthe line 33 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view of FIG. 3taken along the line4-4'showing a pair of brackets engaged by a pair of mounting clips; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a bracket.

Generally speaking, the invention provides a security box having anupright back panel 10, bottom and top horizontal side walls, l2, l4, andleft and right vertical side walls 16, 18 which together form a storagechamber having a front opening closed by a pivotally mounted door 20. Amounting clip 22 is permanently affixed to each vertical side wall 16,18 for removably engaging a bracket 24 which supports a portable bin 26.The brackets 24 can also be inserted in the mounting clips 22 when thesecurity box is in inverted position, thus enabling a single unit to beoptionally used as either a right-swing or left-swing security box.

Referring more specifically to the drawing, the back panel and sidewalls 12, 14, 16, 18 constitute a casing which can be formed of either asingle sheet of 60 metal, or a double sheet such as inner and outerplate members 28, 30 with insulation material 32 therebetween. The innerplate 28 is preferably stair-stepped around the periphery of the frontopening to form first and second ledges 34, 36. The door may besimilarly insulated and shaped to interlock with the stair-steppedledges 34, 36. The inner and outer plates 28, join together and flareoutwardly at their forward ends to form a flange 38 surrounding aperiphery of the entire front opening defined by the side walls 12, 14,16, 18.

The door 20 may be permanently mounted on a side wall by suitable meanssuch as hinge 40 having one section 42 attached to the door and anothersection 44 attached to the right side wall 18. In the illustrated form,the door 20 includes a lock 46 with a bolt 48 movable from an openposition allowing the door to swing freely to a closed position in anotch 50 in the inner plate 28 of theleft side wall 16. I

As best shown in FIG. 4, the mounting clip 22 is preferably formed ofspring material and includes a flat central portion 52 abutting againstand suitably attached as by welding to the vertical side wall. Freeupper and lower retainer legs 54, 56 include a first section 58 adjacentto the central portion 52 and bent away from the side wall, and a secondshoulder section 62 which is biased to abut against the inner plate 28of the side walls 16, 18. An inwardly flared end 64 of each retainer leg54, 56 is attached to the shoulder section 62.

The bracket 24 is preferably formed by an elongated strip having alength slightly less than the depth of the storage chamber, with a firstarm 66 and a second arm 68 perpendicular to each other and identical inlength and shape. That, it will be appreciated by those skilled in theart that either arm 66, 68 of the bracket 24 can be removably insertedbehind either upper or lower retainer leg 54, 56 of the mounting clips22. v

- The mountingclips 22 may be positioned so that the bottom portion ofthe bin 26 resting therein above the lock 46, thus enabling the bin tobe substantially the same depth as the storage chamber. This positioningalso allows room for another bin to be placed in the storage chamber onthe bottom side wall 12.

In order to install thesecurity box, a space is provided in a partitionadjacent one or more framing studs so that suitable fasteners such asnails or screws can be inserted from inside the storage chamber throughthe vertical side walls into the studs without interfering with the backedge of the partition. The security box can be mounted in either itsnormal position or an inverted position, allowing the installer tochoose a lefthand or right-hand swing according to the position in thepartition. The flange 38 provides strength to the casing and makes itmore difficult to tamper with the mounting screws or nails. The shallowdepth of the security box allows the unit to be easily covered andhidden after installation.

It will therefore be appreciated from the foregoing structure that theinvention provides a strong, simple, easily installed invertiblesecurity box capable of providing either a single storage chamber forholding large documents or a plurality of smaller compartments forsecurely holding smaller items such as jewelry, stock certificates andthe like.

Although an exemplary embodiment of the invention has been disclosed anddiscussed, it will be understood that other applications of theinvention are possible, and that the embodiment disclosed may besubjected to various changes, modifications and substitutions withoutnecessarily departing from the spirit of the invention.

We claim as our invention:

1. In a security box of the type having a casing portion with an uprightback panel, two opposing spaced apart horizontal, upper and lower sidewalls, and two opposing spaced apart vertical side walls, the four sidewalls extending forwardly from the back panel to form a storage chamberwith a forward opening, the combi- 1 nation of:

a. a pair of mounting clips fixedly attached in the storage chamber tothe vertical side walls, respectively, said mounting clips each havingidentical upper and lower retainer legs;

b. a pair of mounting brackets each having two arms, the first of whichis removably engageable with said upper retainer leg of said mountingclip when the security box is in its normal position and which isremovably engageable with said lower retainer leg when the security boxis in an inverted position;

c. portable storage means resting in said storage chamber on the secondof said arms of each of said brackets;

' d. door means attached along one of said vertical side walls foropening and closing said storage chamber;

e. each of said brackets constituting an angle member having said firstarm perpendicular to said second arm, with either of said first andsecond arms being engageable by either of said upper and lower retainerlegs of said mounting clips;

f. said mounting clips each including a unitary spring clip having aflat central portion fixedly attached to one of said vertical sidewalls, with said upper and lower retainer legs biased toward said onevertical side wall;

g. said retainer legs having transverse corrugations and each includingan end bent away from said side wall for allowing entry of said firstarm of said bracket and for supporting said second arm of said bracket;and

h. laterally protruding shoulder means between each of said ends of saidretainer legs and said central portion, and formed by one of saidcorrugations, for holding said first arm of said bracket against one ofsaid vertical side walls.

1. In a security box of the type having a casing portion with an uprightback panel, two opposing spaced apart horizontal, upper and lower sidewalls, and two opposing spaced apart vertical side walls, the four sidewalls extending forwardly from the back panel to form a storage chamberwith a forward opening, the combination of: a. a pair of mounting clipsfixedly attached in the storage chamber to the vertical side walls,respectively, said mounting clips each having identical upper and lowerretainer legs; b. a pair of mounting brackets each having two arms, thefirst of which is removably engageable with said upper retainer leg ofsaid mounting clip when the security box is in its normal position andwhich is removably engageable with said lower retainer leg when thesecurity box is in an inverted position; c. portable storage meansresting in said storage chamber on the second of said arms of each ofsaid brackets; d. door means attached along one of said vertical sidewalls for opening and closing said storage chamber; e. each of saidbrackets constituting an angle member having said first armperpendicular to said second arm, with either of said first and secondarms being engageable by either of said upper and lower retainer legs ofsaid mounting clips; f. said mounting clips each including a unitaryspring clip having a flat central portion fixedly attached to one ofsaid vertical side walls, with said upper and lower retainer legs biasedtoward said one vertical side wall; g. said retainer legs havingtransverse corrugations and each including an end bent away from saidside wall for allowing entry of said first arm of said bracket and forsupporting said second arm of said bracket; and h. laterally protrudingshoulder means between each of said ends of said retainer legs and saidcentral portion, and formed by one of said corrugations, for holdingsaid first arm of said bracket against one of said vertical side walls.